~California Trip, Post 1~

This vacation is probably a once in a life time trip for our family.  We used Gregg's frequent flyer miles so our flights were basically free.  We used a time share type deal to get a really good rate on our resort stay.  Packing up eight people to fly across country is exhausting... but we had a good time. I'm not planning on doing this again again time soon though!

This was Kiersten's first time flying.  We left our house about 4:30 am Saturday morning.

We finally got some breakfast in Chicago... although most of us ate lunch items!

Kiersten was very relaxed on our flight from Chicago to San Francisco.  We only had an hour layover but things went very well in our traveling.  We landed with bright sunshine!

Our first stop was Fisherman's Wharf for some clam chowder in sour dough bread bowls.

It was chilly and windy outside, but I was determined to be out in the sun.

We hit Pier 39 to see the Sea Lions and did a very little bit of window shopping.

Alcatraz

We saw a few street performers but were not impressed with most of them... kinda creepy.

Our next stop was the Golden Gate Bridge.

They often have bad weather roll in and Saturday night was no exception.  It got very cloudy and cold as evening approached.

We made it about 1/3 the way walking across the bridge and turned back.  We headed to our hotel and crashed... still on east coast time!

I think we fit a lot into our first day.  There were several things we didn't get to do in San Francisco... but we had seen enough. Us country folk were ready to get out into nature!

~Nathan's Birthday~

Happiest 8th Birthday Nathan!

In spite of everyone being sick, we still did a little birthday celebration for Nathan.  We gave him his gifts :-)  We will make his dinner and cake later, when we feel like eating!

~Five Plus Weeks of Sickness~

Having been through many winters with many children and many germs, we have had our share of sickness.  Nothing even comes close to this winter!

Eric started us off with the six day flu over Christmas.  He managed to get pneumonia as well.

Gregg and I both had the stomach flu in January.  

That was followed by Jared getting the must stay in bed six day flu followed by a two week stay in bed with pneumonia.  We were not sure if he had pneumonia or mono so he had blood work and an x-ray to make sure.  He lost almost 20 pounds in that three weeks.

It is a blurr now, but I had the flu next.  Six days of barely being able to pick myself up out of bed. I am thankful for older boys that can cook and do laundry!  Aaron, Nathan and Kiersten all got the flu at about the same time and each one ended up with pneumonia or bronchitis.  

Jordan got his wisdom teeth out in mid February and unfortunately came down with the flu right after.  Poor guy was pretty miserable.

Gregg was the last one to get the flu and he also managed to get pneumonia. He missed over a week of work.  He was able to work from home a few days but was really dragging.

Even the people at the doctor's office were amazed at how often they were seeing us!  Most of the kids hadn't been doctor's office sick in 4 or 5 years!

Just as we were all recovering, we packed up for a once in a lifetime family vacation!  I will be posting about that soon... if life doesn't become CraZIneSs again!